Gender and Security Issues in Refugee Camps

Temps de lecture : 14 minutes

Gender and Security Issues in Refugee Camps

 

20.09.2020

Inès Daoudi 

 

For the last two decades, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has been focusing on the need to address the issue of violence against women refugees, considering it is a precursor to women’s vulnerability. Indeed, it was not until the mid 1980s that gender became a regular part of the international agenda. Yet, women constitute the overwhelming majority of adult IDPs (Internally Displaced People) and refugees^[1]Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan, Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2009, p114-115 . According to the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women^[2]United Nations Assembly, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 1993, women have the right – among other guaranteed rights -to the highest standard of physical health and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Moreover, the Declaration notes that states have an obligation to protect women, including refugees, and enable them to enjoy the given rights. In 1998, a section called “Refugee Women” was adopted to identify women’s vulnerability. Plus, the need to promote women as agents and not merely beneficiaries of refugee programmes was also acknowledged.

As a matter of fact, female refugees have specific security concerns. They are particularly vulnerable to sexual, gender-based violence in both conflict and post-conflict contexts. Post-conflict insecurity for female refugees is reflected in their vulnerability to sexual violence, trafficking, and enslavement within refugee camp constructs. Nonetheless, refugee masculinities shall be taken into account in order to provide a more comprehensive insight of female insecurity in the realm of refugee camps.

This article will draft a gendered analysis, tackling both women and men interactions in their specific social and cultural contexts, rather than only studying the fate of women in isolation^[3]Heather McLean, Gender and power-structures in refugee camps: social changes following refugee movements, Asia Pacific Press, 1999, p 4 . It will first explain the different security issues and their origins, than describe the emerging coping strategies and eventually the will to solve them. Several countries and/or specific refugee camps within these countries will be quoted as examples to illustrate this article such as Sudan, Dzaleka camp in Malawi, Kakuma camp in Kenya, Jordan and Lebanon.

Women, as supply collectors, are the most affected by insecurity issues

Insecurity and supply issues are mostly common in refugee camps and differently affect men and women.

First of all, distribution sites for food and non-food items (NFIs) are considered to be the second highest area of risk of physical assault for adult women, after their living space. Yet, women are the ones who spend most of their time collecting food and water. It can easily be justified by the gender division of labour dictated by cultural and/or religious norms. The main challenge remains the long waiting lines to get food, where women have been reported to be “the object of unwanted attention^[4]Dale Buscher and Melissa Gurumurthi, Gender in action: successes and shortfalls in the Syrian refugees’ crisis, 2014 ”. In addition to that, water collection points were proven to be privileged arenas for violence, especially during the driest months of the year, with long queues (waiting time of 2 or 3 hours^[5]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 68 ). It can be explained by the lack of boreholes and the population increase, but also by the fact that in some camps (for instance, in Malawi), men do not need to queue and directly go to the head of the line because of the privilege they think they have as males (consequences of a patriarchal society). Plus, “surrounding water and boreholes often included physical and verbal attacks between the female refugees”^[6]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 68 and women “who are viewed as weak, both physically and socially, or women who are ostracised”^[7]Ibid., p 69prefer avoiding verbal and physical fighting. As a consequence, some women may choose to fetch water at night, and they increase their risk of physical and sexual assault^[8]Ibid., p 69-70.

Another point to bear in mind is the firewood collect: most of the time food rations are distributed without the means of cooking the food and refugees must get wood in order to heat their meal. In many societies, cooking is considered like a domestic role, that is to say, a female role. In this regard, female refugees are forced to gather heating resources such as firewood and charcoal to prepare meals for the family. It can be very dangerous because they may have to go outside the camp when there is no firewood close to where they live, and they are often attacked by local people^[9] Ibid., p 24.

On another note, refugees also contribute to deforestation and environment degradation which correlates to increased tensions between host and displaced communities, which often results in the targeting of displaced women^[10]Ibid., p 89.

Despite the UNHCR’s commitment to provide sanitary materials, they admit in a recent report that “lack of sanitary materials is still a major problem for the majority of refugee women and girls. This is usually due to lack of funding. In some sites, no sanitary materials are available at all and in others their quantities and quality are insufficient^[11]UNHCR, Survivors, Protectors, Providers: Refugee Women Speak Out, 2006, p 54”. The needs of women and girls have been met in less than 20% of refugee camps worldwide^[12]UNHCR, 2006, in Jane Friedman, Gendering the International Asylum and the Refugee Debate, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, p 68 . Distribution of NFIs such as nappies and sanitary pads generally failed because women heads of households were unable to leave their children alone at home to go to collect points. Some organisations tried to visit women at their places to give them directly, but it is not the majority yet.

Furthermore, “during a non-food based ration distribution targeting vulnerable groups of refugees by the UNHCR, many of the rations were taken by male refugees^[13]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 88”: it firstly shows the difficulties for women, the elderly and orphans to get what they need but it also reveals the inability of refugee-based organisations  to provide security for them.

Last but not least, there is a growing need for urgent psychosocial and mental health support for both men and women in refugee camps. However, it only exists in few camps and many women, particularly young girls, do not have any access to it, as they are kept at home for cultural and safety reasons.

Violence issues and coping strategies

Forced migration and exile lead to the destruction of the nucleus family and community structures and can be lived as a terrible breakdown for the victims. Firstly, men lose their role as breadwinners (they became dependent of humanitarian aid) and they are unable to fulfil one of their “masculine responsibilities”, such as protecting their family: it results in higher levels of frustration among some of these men and most of them engage in destructive behaviour such as SGBV (sexual and gender-based violence)^[14]Simon Turner, Victims of Chaos and Subaltern Sexualities? Some Reflections on Common Assumption about Displacement and the Prevalence of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, p 50 in Susanne … Continue reading as a coping mechanism because they face a real gender identity crisis, concerning specifically emasculation. Fathers and brothers often initiate coping strategies followed by the family. Coping has been identified by Lazarus and Folkman as “constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person^[15]Richard S. Lazarus and Susan Folkman, Stress, Appraisal, and Coping, New York, Springer, 1984, p 141”. An Oxfam’s research report entitled “Self-protection and coping strategies of refugees from Syria and host communities in Lebanon” explained that coping strategies can be diverse, such as spending savings liquidating assets, finding work, resorting to aid, borrowing money, sharing resources and receiving remittances^[16]Fatmeh Alzoubi, Ahmed Smadi, Yazeed Mohammad Gougazeh, “Coping Strategies used by Syrian Refugees in Jordan”, pp 1-26, Clinical Nursing Research, December 2017, p 12. It can also be talking to peers, and religious practices such as praying, according to another study led by the Jordan University of Science and Technology and the American University of Madaba^[17]Oxfam, Self-Protection and Coping Strategies of Refugees from Syria and Host Communities in Lebanon, Oxfam Research Report, July 2015, p 3. However, when males are missing, mothers and sisters become heads of the family, therefore it is their role to elaborate coping strategies to survive. Thus, many women are in charge of their destiny for the first time and they discover a new sense of independence, they want to make something of their lives, they do not want to depend entirely of humanitarian aid, they want to support themselves and their family^[18]Cécile Dubernet, “An Introduction to Forced Migration Issues”, Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris, 2017-2018. On the other hand, it is very difficult for them to be economically independent, in addition to incurred dangers (insecurity issues). In some instances, women must engage both the public and private sphere to survive, by doubling their workload. The main problem is the subordination of women and more generally, gender inequality, reproduced and perpetuated to a greater extent by the violent context of this situation.

Additionally, violence is clearly gendered in nature: men are most of the time beaten, imprisoned or even killed while women are raped by people inside but also outside the camp^[19]Amy R. Friedman, Rape and Domestic Violence: The Experience of Refugee Women, the Haworth Press, 1992, p 67  Men are also victims of raped and it cannot be denied but the point here is to show that … Continue reading. Rape has always been a wartime sexual violence and is used as a means of psychological warfare which can be a way, but not the only one, to humiliate the enemy. It is, of course, terrible for the victim but it is also a way to make men (as a collective group in a patriarchal society) feel ashamed because of their inability to protect their wives.

In addition to that, criminal penalty is practically inexistent. Indeed, policemen are corrupted, and they may release the rapist in exchange of money. Sometimes even sex might be required to obtain services from the police: for example, in Dzaleka camp, the Malawi Police “is the main culprit in corruption allegations” and they “may also force women to do prostitution”^[20]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 75-76. With no trust in institutional representation^[21]Ibid., p 75 , victims do not even denounce what happened and choose to remain quiet and not report what happened to them. Also, some women may prefer traditional trial than the official one. For instance, Somali women have less belief in the Kenyan formal legal system and prefer to handle cases in the Mashlaha courts which is a traditional dispute resolution mechanism^[22]Claire Waithira Mwangi, Women Refugees and Sexual Violence in Kakuma Camp, Kenya, Invisible rights, justice, protracted protection and human insecurity, The Hague, 2012, p 21. Yet punishment for raping a virgin girl is more severe than if she was married and the perpetrator could also marry the victim, which clearly are violations of women’s rights.

Forced prostitution is also another form of violence against women (sexual exploitation), as well as a survival strategy. Often realised under the pressure of men who have what women need, mainly because they do not see any other solution than engaging in survival sex in order to gain food, to avoid physical violence, and to fulfil material needs for themselves and their families^[23]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 65 . Quite frequently, refugees cannot legally work in the country they are, so they have to use different coping strategies to survive in refugee camps. For example, in Kiryandongo, Uganda, women sun-dried and stored green vegetables, sold their domestic animals and chicken to buy food, searched for wild fruits and added a lot of water to sauce to have more^[24]Deborah Mulumba, Women Refugees in Uganda, Gender Relations, Livelihood Security and Reproductive Aid, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 302. Another coping strategy is getting married (with a man of the camp), mainly for financial security but it brings negative impacts. In this same refugee camp, girl refugees themselves confirmed that they are more interested in getting married than attending school^[25]Ibid., p 310. Nevertheless, the early and problematic pregnancy risk is higher for young wives as well as being abused by their husband. Moreover, if many girls are interested in getting married, the majority faces forced marriages.

Several solutions have been set up by international organisations and NGOs but they still face challenges 

Institutions and policy guidelines are very important to ensure equality of women refugees. In the context of refugee camps, the host state is responsible for both internal and external security for the refugees. However, governance of refugee camps often becomes the responsibility of the UNHCR. In 1989 was founded the Women’s Refugee Commission to improve the lives and to protect the rights of women, children and youth displaced by conflict and crisis. It shares its expertise on the needs of refugee women and children and sets up the policies that can protect and empower them. The UNHCR produced the Policy on Refugee Women in 1990^[26]UNHCR, The Policy on Refugee Women, 1990, the Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women in 1991^[27]UNHCR, The Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women, 1991, and the Guidelines for Sexual and Gender-based Violence Against Refugees, Returnees, and Internally Displaced Persons in 2003^[28]UNHCR, The Guidelines for Sexual and Gender-based Violence against Refugees, Returnees, and Internally Displaced Persons, 2003. Two handbooks were respectively created in 2006 and 2008: An Inter-Agency Standing Committee Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action^[29]UNHCR, An Inter-Agency Standing Committee Gender Handbook in Humanitarian Action, 2006, and the UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls^[30]UNHCR, The UNHCR Handbook for the Protection of Women and Girls, 2008. UNHCR guidelines advocate participation of women refugees in the camp administration in a culturally sensitive manner in order for women’s participation to be accepted. Still, it meets resistance from both men and women.

Plus, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee in collaboration with the Norwegian Refugee Council created in 1997 the Gender Standby Capacity Project (GenCap). It seeks to facilitate
and strengthen capacity and leadership of humanitarians to undertake and promote gender equality programming to ensure the distinct needs of women, girls, boys and men of all ages, are taken into account in humanitarian action at global, regional, and country levels.

In 2019, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) wrote an “Emergency Manual on Gender-based Violence in Crises^[31]IOM, “Gender-based Violence in Crisis”, Emergency Manual, 2019” which shows the will to highlight this type of violence. As it has previously been discussed, the structure of the refugee camp can be a source of insecurity for female refugees (women’s everyday lives in these camps is regulated and framed by tasks such as collecting water and food rations).

Thus, the spatial organisation of the camp structures the women’s management of their time and shapes the social routines and income-earning strategies^[32]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 26. The major issue is that refugee camps are designed to facilitate the administrative tasks of the UNHCR and other aid agencies that run the camps or work with them, rather than to make life easier for the refugees who live there. The challenge would be to take into account refugee women’s issues.

Besides, the humanitarian aid institutions engage and support the local feminist and women’s rights organisations at the forefront of promoting women’s and girls’ empowerment^[33]Dale Buscher and Melissa Gurumurthi, Gender in action: successes and shortfalls in the Syrian refugees’ crisis, 2014 . Humanitarian agencies usually hire young men within the refugee camps which offer these men greater security both physically and economically. However, female refugees, are hired primarily in the health sector of the refugee camps in such roles as working in supplementary feeding programs or as traditional birth attendants^[34]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 27 . It can be seen as gender inequality in the workplace, but some women may refuse to see a male doctor, or sometimes it is the husband who do not want his wife to be examined by a male doctor. To counter this, it is necessary to primarily work with women. Although, women’s participation has become a central governance strategy in refugee camps and is therefore often understood as gender equality promotion, the reality is that refugee women are often discussed in instrumental terms, for the achievement of a range of humanitarian goals. Women’s perceived passivity or failure to participate in ways expected by humanitarian organisations was also frequently brought up and described as a problem^[35]Elisabeth Olivius, “Displacing Equality? Women’s Participation and Humanitarian Aid Effectiveness in Refugee Camps”, Refugee Survey Quaterly, Vol 33, Issue 33, Sept 2014, pp 93-1017 in Ashley … Continue reading.

In these situations, it is more necessary than ever to empower refugee women. It exists vocational programmes aimed at young men and women who are out of school, but they typically follow stereotypical gender lines: hairstyling and jewellery making for women and carpentry and agriculture for men. Encouragingly, many organisations offer computer and language skills for both^[36]Dale Buscher and Melissa Gurumurthi, Gender in action: successes and shortfalls in the Syrian refugees’ crisis, 2014 . Yet, one might wonder if stereotypical gender lines, in this context, are really detrimental. Indeed, it is a way to be sure that families let their girls follow these activities outside their home. By shifting their perception of women and girls as victims to women and girls as change makers, humanitarian actors can capitalise on the potential for social change. In numerous conversations organised by Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, displaced women indicated their interest in what NGOs call “capacity-building projects”^[37]Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan, Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2009, p 49. They want to learn skills such as sewing, typing and petty commodity production and to borrow seed money for small enterprises so they can earn money for themselves and their family. They also welcome “empowerment programmes” that offer them access to information and resources they need to make decisions independently and act on their own initiative^[38]Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan, Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2009, p 49 . 

The refugee-based institutions and the refugees themselves must recognize that solutions to women’s needs go beyond ensuring equal representation of women in leadership and decision. Instead, participation must be meaningful, shared equally, and avoid tokenizing refugee women. Refugee women must be involved in the decision-making process and feel safe to contribute ideas. Moreover, it is time for organisations to work more closely with men and boys on gender equality and SGBV: men’s inclusion in the policies and programmes that promote women’s rights implemented in refugee camps is vital to addressing issues of emasculation (in particular committing SGBV) in order to achieve gender equality and improving the security of refugee women. It has to be noted that to ensure that these policies and programmes are successful, men need to be educated about women’s rights as a starting point^[39]Ashley Ramier, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding Perceptions of Security and Insecurity, Ottawa, 2016, p 29 . Nonetheless, it is interesting to see that some male refugees who made up the dominant groups within the camps may interpret these programmes as spreading social and moral decay. It can be explained by the fact that if refugee women might be given an opportunity to work for an NGO and thus become ‘the breadwinner’ in the household, it may threaten traditional gender relations and men’s perceptions of their own roles and of their female partners’ role. So, many men refugees insisted on retaining gendered roles and divisions of labour based upon women’s subordinate role within the family, thus undermining any attempt to create more equal gender relations.

Conclusion

Gender and security issues in refugee camps need to be understood as a whole but also, as a distinct problematic. Indeed, if both men and women are linked, women have specific needs which differ from men. Women and young girls are more vulnerable to violence and need special infrastructures. Collaboration with refugees themselves is also crucial for positive and sustainable change and is clearly proving fruitful in initiatives. Thus, many NGOs working with refugees and IDPs know about gender issues and they develop specific answers to face them. Moreover, “operational presence in refugee settlements also enables NGOs to involve refugees in all aspects of the planning and delivery of relief services and goods^[40]Henk Van Goethem, “NGOs in Refugee Protection: An Unrecognized Resource”, May 2003, Humanitarian Practice Network”. Nevertheless, some “may be worried about risking their neutrality and organisational independence when developing protection initiatives. Others may feel uncomfortable for fear of blurring traditional divisions of labour between themselves and their contracting donor (often UHNRC)^[41]Ibid.”. Yet, UNHCR alone is failing to live up to these obligations and IOM’s mandate does not take into account refugees but only migration flows, that is why “collaborative efforts, which draw on each member of the humanitarian community’s strengths are vital to securing refuge
es rights^[42]Ibid.”. If a real progress has been made through the years, challenges remain very strong.

Bibliography (links consulted 1/09/20)

Books:

FRIEDMAN Amy R., Rape and Domestic Violence: The Experience of Refugee Women, the Haworth Press, 1992, 15 p ; Available at: https://refugeeresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Friedman-1992-Rape-and-domestic-violence-The-experience-of-refugee-women.pdf

FRIEDMAN Jane, Gendering the International Asylum and the Refugee Debate, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 246 p 

LATTE ABDALLAH Stéphanie, Femmes réfugiées palestiniennes, Paris, Puf, 2006, 240 p

LAZARUS Richard S. Lazarus and FOLKMAN Susan, Stress, Appraisal, and Coping, New York, Springer, 1984, 456 p

MULUMBA Deborah, Women Refugees in Uganda, Gender Relations, Livelihood Security and Reproductive Settlement, Chicago, London, the University of Chicago Press, 2009, 183 p

MUSTAFA ABUSHARAF Rogaia, Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan, Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement, Chicago, London, the University of Chicago Press, 2009, 208 p

ROULLEAU-BEGER Laurence, Migrer au féminin, Paris, Puf, 2010, 188 p

TURNER Simon, Victims of Chaos and Subaltern Sexualities? Some Reflections on Common Assumption about Displacement and the Prevalence of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, p 44-57 in Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Ulrike Krause, Gender, Violence, Refugees, New York, Oxford, Berghahn Books, 2017, 292 p

Booklets:

MCLEAN Heather, Gender and power-structures in refugee camps: social changes following refugee movements, Asia Pacific Press, 1999, 15 p ; Available at: http://www.peacewomen.org/sites/default/files/disp_genderandpower_mclean_1999_0.pdf

OXFAM, Self-Protection and Coping Strategies of Refugees from Syria and Host Communities in Lebanon, Oxfam Research Report, July 2015, 56 p ; Available at: https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/file_attachments/rr-lebanon-refugees-protection-300616-en.pdf

UHCHR, Survivors, Protectors, Providers: Refugee Women Speak Out, 2011, 66 p ; Available at: https://www.unhcr.org/50f919f39.pdf

IOM, Handbook on Protection and assistance for Migrants Vulnerable to Violence, Exploitation and Abuse, 2019, 298 p ; Available at: https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/DMM/MPA/the_avm_handbook.pdf

Articles:

BUSCHER Dale, GURUMURTHI Melissa, “Gender in action: Successes and shortfalls in the Syrian refugee crisis”, December 2014, Gender and Development, p573-578 ; Available at: https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/journal-articles/gender-in-action-successes-and-shortfalls-in-the-syrian-refugee-crisis/

ALZOUBI Fatmeh, SMADI Ahmed, GOUGAZEH Yazeed Mohammad, “Coping Strategies used by Syrian Refugees in Jordan”, pp 1-26, Clinical Nursing Research, December 2017 ; Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322068667_Coping_Strategies_Used_by_Syrian_Refugees_in_Jordan

Research paper and thesis:

RAMIER Ashley, Life for Women in a Refugee Camp in Malawi: Understanding perceptions of security and insecurity, supervised by Dr Rebecca Tiessen, School of international Development and Global Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada, 2016, 125 p

WAITHIRA MWANGI Claire, Women refugees and sexual violence in Kakuma Camp, Kenya, Invisible rights, justice, protracted protection and human insecurity, supervised by Dr Helen Hintjens, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2012, 59 p 

Websites:

IOM, “Gender-based Violence in Crises”, Emergency Manual, 2019 ; Available at: https://emergencymanual.iom.int/entry/90449/genderbased-violence-in-crises

OCHA Services, Humanitarian Response, GenCap – The IASC Gender Standby Capacity Project ; Available at: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/coordination/gencap

VAN GOETHEM Henk, “NGOs in Refugee Protection: An Unrecognized Resource”, May 2003, Humanitarian Practice Network ; Available at: https://odihpn.org/magazine/ngos-in-refugee-protection-an-unrecognised-resource/

Inter-Agency Standing Committee website ; Available at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/

Women’s Refugee Commission website ; Available at: https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/

To cite this publication : Inès DAOUDI, “Gender and Security Issues in Refugee Camps”, 20.09.2020, Gender in Geopolitics Institute.